Russian Political System
Center and Vertical: the Political Nature of Putin’s Presidency
Searching for the answer to the question «Who is Mr. Putin?» the author analyzes the mechanisms providing the second Russian president with the highest level of mass support. He comes to the conclusion that Mr. Putin’s political position standing beyond any party competition mostly fonned this vast political resource. Putin’s «center» has nothing to do with centrism in the party sense of the word. It is rather the focus of institutionalization similar to the one described by E.Shils and S.N.Eisenstadt. Such center by its very nature structures the political environment vertically. And this is the clue to interpreting the polysemantic image of «the vertical of power», the phenomenon so important for understanding the nature of Putin’s presidency. This political regime corresponds to many stereotypes traditional for Russian political system, and that is why inherent to it. At the same time it maintains evident democratic features, and that is why can be regarded as promoting the establishment of democratic practices in Russia (at the expense of their most serious adaptation and modification.) However, the final success of all that is not guaranteed, and only the future will allow judging about the possibility of such synthesis.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2001-22-4-5-24
Pages: 5-24
Elena Meleshkina, Natalia Anokhina
Russian Electoral Behavior as a Model of the «Funnel of Causality»
The article studies how methodological approaches and models commonly recognized in the world science are applied to Russian realia. According to the authors, the «funnel of causality» is the best instrument for the analysis of Russian voters’ behavior, which can sometimes be quite unexpected. E.Meleshkina and N.Anokhina make an attempt to identify problems of methodological and content importance related to this model, and to propose their vision of the main directions of their resolution.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2001-22-4-25-43
Pages: 25-43
Global Perspective
Vladimir Pantin, Vladimir Lapkin
The article covers the attempts to understand the major changes taking place in modem society. The authors believe that understanding would be incomplete as the least if all the attention is concentrated only on the most obvious tendencies of the latest decades. The focus of V.Pantin and V.Lapkin’ study are more large-scale and long-term mega trends. According to their opinion these are, in particular, the processes of modernization, which started in Western Europe in the XVlI-th century and then extended to other regions. Western European civilization is researched form the point of view of its locality and universality. The crisis and contradictions of the «universal civilization» are reviewed.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2001-22-4-44-64
Pages: 44-64
Russian Regions
The Other Side of the Garden Ring: the Experience of Political Regional Students in Russia
The author dates the factual beginning of the regional aspects of Russian politics back to 1990-ies. Using works by Russian and foreign researchers he evaluates the ten years experience from both theoretical and comparative prospective. The article covers the analysis of such problems as the federal arrangement of the Russian Federation and relations between the Center and regions, political institutions and political processes at regional level, local self-government in Russia.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2001-22-4-65-94
Pages: 65-94
Alexey Kurlov, Vasiliy Sukhanov
Sociodynamics of Establishing of Political Priorities with the Electorate of the Republic
The article studies the dynamics of the electoral behavior with the republic of Bashkortistan as an example. The authors concentrate on the processes of establishing of political priorities and on the factors determining them. The authors carry out the comparative analysis of the distribution of priorities in Bashkir electorates of B.Eltsin, G.Zyuganov, V.Zhyrinovskiy and G.Yavlinskiy. The work also touches upon the elections of the President of the Republic of Bashkortistan and their importance for establishing of local electorate political conscientiousness.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2001-22-4-95-112
Pages: 95-112
Searching Sustainable Civic Society (with Orenburg Region as an Example)
The article studies the role and capacities of the regional level in establishing of civic society with Orenburg region as an example. The author tries to measure the level of «social capital» in the regional community in order to determine the degree of the real involvement of the population into the true civil activity. The article also covers the analysis of the role of the local elite in the dynamics of the above mentioned processes and the comparison of the situation in Orenburg region with other Russian regions.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2001-22-4-113-126
Pages: 113-126
Foreign Policy Perspectives
Bulgarian Paradigm: Tsar – Prime Minister
The author analyzes the causes and the significance of the former Bulgarian Tsar Simeon the Second’s success at the parliamentary elections in Bulgaria, In this respect, he refers both to the pan Balkan tendency of the revival of pro monarchic senses and the historical peculiarities of the monarch tradition in Bulgaria. The article reviews the program «800 days», which Simeon II proposed to Bulgarian voters in the course of the pre-election campaign promising changes in economic and social spheres.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2001-22-4-127-135
Pages: 127-135
The article reviews the preconditions and circumstances of the recreation of the unified German State. In this respect, the author refers both to the realization of the idea of the national unity in the historical retrospective and German neighbors’ controversial reaction to it. A significant attention is paid to the problems, which emerged after German unification (both domestic and international ones).
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2001-22-4-136-147
Pages: 136-147
Post-Soviet Environment
The author reviews the problem of the relationships between the Church and the state in Latvia in historical retrospective. He focuses his attention on the end of the soviet period and beginning of the post-soviet period. Taking into consideration the multi-confessional character of the country the word «church» is used in its collective meaning covering all the traditional confessions of Latvia - Lutherans and Baptists, Catholics, Russian Orthodox Christians and Old believers. L.Taiwans evaluates the consequences of the Church half a century existence in full isolation form the external non-communist world, and explains the causes of the confrontation of the power and the Church.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2001-22-4-148-161
Pages: 148-161
Consciousness of Modern Believer: Content Analysis, Religious Practices and Identities
The article studies the phenomenon of the revival of religious consciousness under the modernization processes in the post-soviet environment, first of all in Russia and Ukraine. An attempt is made to clarify the issue of the level of religious factor impact on the modernization. The authors touch upon the problem of the intrusion into the initial system of the culture of foreign cultural and religious elements, the factors decreasing the influence of the Church. L.Ryazanova analyzes the problem of religious identity, which may often be of purely ritual character and compatible with the alienation from religious value normative basis.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2001-22-4-162-172
Pages: 162-172
Georgian Political Elite (Nature, Values, Conditions of the Formation)
According to Youri Sulaberidze in modern Georgian society the process of the formation of the elite is in its initial stage, and it is rather chaotic. The Georgian ruling class is not just a summation of elite groups but an amalgamation of heterogeneous values. The article researches the specifics of the process of the formation of the elite, its dynamics and structure. According to the author in order to promote the democratic way of development it is necessary to renew the composition of the ruling class elite, to overcome the closeness of the clannish corporate system blocking the possibilities of the development of the civic society.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2001-22-4-173-180
Pages: 173-180
Books Review
Legitimacy in the Interpretation of Spanish Philosopher Ortega y Gasset
On the basis of the interpretation of Ortega ó Gasset, the author gives a comprehensive analysis of the concept of legitimacy: its role in histoiy, its essence and the necessary conditions.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2001-22-4-181-193
Pages: 181-193
The author reflects over the book by E.B.Rashkovskiy on the philosophy of history. The attention is focused on one of Rashkovskiy’s theses. He believes that history can be the subject of certain spiritual measurement, which should be probably identified as the essence of history. The essay analyzes the methodology of Rashkovskiy’s research, his comparison between the culture and the civilization, the structure and the content of culture. In this respect, special attention is paid to Russian civilization, which in its essence is not so much local but rather inter-civilizational.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2001-22-4-194-206
Pages: 194-206
Chronicles
Political Parties and Movements in the Second Half of 2001
The traditional for «Politeia» review presents the chronicle of major events in the life of Russian political parties and movements at certain period of time. As usual the chronicle antedates the analysis of political processes. According to You.Korgunyuk, the end of summer- autumn of 2001 can be associated with the crystallization of the following tendencies – the intensive structurization of the center, the further marginalization of the left, certain crisis phenomena at the right wing.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2001-22-4-207-235
Pages: 207-235